Partners
by the ramblin rose
Summary: Shandrea, short. S2, Ep6 "Secrets." Lori wanted to be protected, but Andrea wanted to be his partner.


**AN: This is in a series of "shorts" that I'm doing for entertainment value as I rewatch some episodes. Some of them are interpretations/rewrites of scenes that are in each episode. Some are scenes that never happened but could have in "imagination land". They aren't meant to be taken seriously and they aren't meant to be mind-blowing fic. They're just for entertainment value and allowing me to stretch my proverbial writing muscles. If you find any enjoyment in them at all, then I'm glad. If you don't, I apologize for wasting your time. They're "shorts" or "drabbles" or whatever you want to call them so I'm not worrying with how long they are. Some will be shorter, some will be longer.**

 **This one is partially from the show and partially of my own creation/embellishment.**

 **I own nothing from the Walking Dead.**

 **I hope that you enjoy! Let me know what you think!**

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Andrea was practically the anti-Lori.

That's how Shane was starting to think of her, at least.

Lori sought to be protected. From what Shane could see, she was looking to be protected by as many people as was humanly possible. That's why she was yo-yoing him around.

He had no other description for what was happening besides that he was trapped in a game of yo-yo and Lori held the string. Lori had him so turned around that he couldn't tell if he was coming or going—not when it came to her.

She loved Rick. She'd loved Rick a long time. They'd been married so long that they were one of those couples that, before all of this, nobody could ever talk about without mentioning both of them. Rick and Lori, Lori and Rick. It was practically impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. They were perfect together. They had their perfect little house, their perfect son, their perfect family.

But Shane knew that there was a breakdown in their perfection. He'd been Rick's partner long enough to know that things weren't as perfect in paradise as his partner might let the outside world believe. He'd been questioning, for a long time, if he even loved his wife anymore. Or, if he wasn't questioning his love for her, he was at least questioning whether or not he liked her.

And Lori? She'd given Shane the exact same impression. Leaving King's County hadn't been easy because she'd been practically hysterical. Where were they going? What were they going to do? What was really happening and how were things going to end? What was it going to mean for all of them?

Shane had gotten her and Carl out of there, though. At first he'd done it all for Rick. He'd wanted to save his friend, but there was no way to get the man out of the hospital when he was unconscious and, from what Shane could tell, actually deceased. It was hard enough to get himself out without trying to drag a corpse along to slow him down. So he'd made a promise to Rick that he was sure that the man had never heard—he would take care of Lori and he would take care of Carl as though they were his own family. He would become their family. He would make sure that they were safe and that they made it through this, whatever this really turned out to be.

He'd kept that promise. He'd kept them safe. He'd gotten them out of King County and, when Atlanta turned out to be too dangerous, he'd gotten them away from Atlanta. Along the way he'd helped save some others—others who could help them survive in one way or another—and he'd kept his promise.

Falling for Lori hadn't been part of the plan. At least, not originally.

At first it was just sex. Nothing more. It could be the end of the world. He could protect her with his life, but that was all he had to offer. Once it was gone, it was gone. Everything took over like a fever.

But as soon as the sex had started, she'd started to spill her feelings about her marriage. She wasn't sure that Rick still loved her. And, when she was sure that he still loved her—because yo-yoing was nothing new for Lori—she wasn't sure that she still loved him. She wasn't sure she'd loved him for a long time. But, it seemed, she was certain that she loved Shane.

She loved Shane because he was there. She loved Shane because he could protect her. She loved him because she feared being alone and she needed someone to take care of her and promise her that everything was going to be alright.

He could promise her that. He could do whatever she needed him to do—anything within his power—to make sure that she was happy.

He could be the man that she needed and the father that Carl needed.

Until Rick returned.

As soon as Rick returned, Lori seemed to forget those doubts she'd had about their marriage. She seemed to forget about the questioned love. She seemed to forget about the promises and the declarations she'd made to Shane in the heat of the moment. She was entirely Rick's.

Except when she wasn't.

She didn't want Shane to stay and she didn't want him to go. She didn't want him to touch her, but she didn't want him to do what he needed to do and put the distance between them that would take the temptation away. He suspected that, if she were honest, she didn't want him touching her because her husband was there, but she didn't want him touching anyone else either.

She wanted him to be there, and she wanted him to keep his promise about protecting her, but only as a backup in case Rick failed. If Rick's attempts fell through, she wanted Shane there to take care of her. He was her second choice. He was her backup plan.

But Andrea didn't want him as a backup plan. He wasn't even sure she wanted him as anything serious. She wanted him, in her own words, as a partner. She'd have his back, he'd have hers. Andrea didn't want him to protect her. She wanted to protect herself and, in time, she wanted to protect him.

In time she'd be able to protect herself. She was already learning because she wanted to learn. She was already getting better because she wasn't content with her starting point. Andrea had potential to be what she wanted to be and more.

Andrea had potential to be a partner to Shane.

The sex with Andrea had been different, too, than the sex with Lori.

It had been born of the same kind of staring-death-in-the-face heat that sex with Lori had been born from, but it hadn't had the same feelings and it hadn't started the same way. Shane had felt like he'd been the one to "ask" Lori if they might consummate their relationship. Andrea had left no room to wonder whether or not she was interested. Lori had declared her affections for Shane and had been teary about their first sexual encounter. Andrea hadn't made any such declarations beyond her approval of the sex and she'd smiled at him while she'd wrestled her way back into the clothing that he barely got her out of for the rushed encounter.

There was no overflowing emotion and there was no need to make things what they weren't. Time might change their feelings for each other, but right now the physical relationship between them was nothing more than physical. It was a release that both of them needed that was meant to accomplish nothing more than that very release. There wasn't any need to put more stress on it than that.

Andrea wasn't putting boundaries on him. She wasn't telling him not to touch her and she wasn't telling him not to go. She was telling him that, when he went, she wanted to go with him—wherever he wanted to go—and she would follow his lead if he would teach her what she needed to know so that she could take care of herself.

She wasn't jerking him around, and he could appreciate that.

Shane loved Lori, but he didn't love her ways. He didn't love being assigned to the role of backup man and being kept around as a protector—expected to roll over to Rick and clean up any messes he made without comment.

Shane didn't love Andrea, but he liked her will. He liked her determination and he liked what he thought she could become. He liked, too, that there was nobody there to get in their way. There was no husband that would appear to screw the whole thing up. There was nobody that was going to "come back to life" for her to put over him and ask him to bow to.

Whether they were equals with a physical relationship or they somehow dropped over into lovers—they would do it alone. Just the two of them, as partners.

And the more that Shane thought about it, the more that he started to like the idea of it. The more that he started to think it was time to break ties with Lori and Rick—time to break ties with the group. It was time to reconsider packing his things—and Andrea's things—and hitting the road for wherever the hell they might be going.

So when Dale suggested that he go, alone, practically smelling what had happened between them, Shane had no choice but to put the man in his place.

Andrea wasn't Lori. Dale wasn't Rick.

And Shane wasn't going to let the man tell him what he could and couldn't do with a willing woman who wanted to be his partner.


End file.
